Taking their cue from the Trump administration, Republicans in at least 15 states and Congress are seeking to bar low-income people from using food aid to buy candy and soft drinks.
The proposals to restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits reference U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, reviving a debate over how or whether public assistance programs should incentivize healthy eating.
“This is part of a larger national movement — that I think we have seen — called the MAHA movement,” Idaho Rep. Jordan Redman (R) said just before his bill was narrowly approved by the House this month. “We’re just putting our step forward and addressing this issue from the state level.”
As did Republican sponsors of similar bills in other states, Redman quoted Kennedy and new U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who say the government shouldn’t pay for foods that make people sick.
Anti-hunger groups and public health experts counter that benefit restrictions stigmatize recipients of food aid and are too complicated to enforce, potentially creating a barrier for people struggling to stretch limited food budgets.
“The issue that we have is that, by restricting SNAP benefits, what will end up happening is you end up making the access to those healthier foods less available,” said Eric Mitchell, president of the Alliance to End Hunger. “What we urge, what we are always urging folks to do is, rather than looking at ways to restrict what a person can or cannot buy, what are we doing to actually make healthier foods more affordable?”
Under the Idaho bill, candy is defined as “a preparation of sugar, honey or other natural or artificial sweeteners combined with chocolate, fruits, nuts or other ingredients.”
“This isn’t just banning Twix bars: This bans granola bars; This bans Power Bars,” Rep. Ilana Rubel (D) said. “It seems kind of irrational to me to be banning these highly enriched Power Bars while you can still use your SNAP to buy potato chips and Jello. This just is not particularly targeted to health.”
Changing SNAP rules would require Congress to revise the 2008 law that created the program, a proposal Republicans on Capitol Hill are advancing. For now, states have to apply for individual waivers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Redman’s bill would direct state officials to request a waiver from that department to exclude “candy and soda” from the definition of eligible food purchases under the SNAP program – commonly referred to as food stamps. So would legislation introduced in Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Previous waiver requests have been denied by both Republican and Democratic administrations. But Kennedy’s promise to take on Big Food has brought new attention to the issue and a powerful advocate to the White House.
That momentum coincides with a parallel and sometimes contradictory effort from Republicans in Washington to make deep budget cuts to federal food aid and other safety net programs.
The $113 billion SNAP program serves about 42 million Americans. A budget resolution adopted by the U.S. House in February calls for $230 billion in cuts over 10 years from programs within the House Agriculture Committee’s jurisdiction, which includes SNAP — an amount difficult to achieve without steep cuts to the program. And in recent days, the Agriculture Department shut down two programs that gave food banks and schools $1 billion to spend on food from local farms.
The SNAP program allows purchases of “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” except alcohol, tobacco and hot foods, including those prepared for immediate consumption.
Over the past several decades, states have made numerous attempts to exclude sugary food, prepared desserts, ice cream, sodas and “luxury items” such as steak from SNAP benefit purchases.
Minnesota’s 2004 request — the first for candy and soft drink exemptions — was met with a letter from the the Agriculture Department questioning the proposal’s merits and saying it would “perpetuate the myth” that food stamp users made poor shopping decisions.
Department officials denied a New York request in 2010 based on the logistical difficulty of sorting out which beverages could or couldn’t be purchased with food stamps, and because it would be hard to gauge how effective the step was in reducing obesity.
Instead, federal officials have encouraged state programs that seek to make it easier to use SNAP money on healthy, locally produced foods. More than 25 states match SNAP fruit and vegetable purchases through “double up” programs. Colorado, Louisiana and Washington apply a credit equal to the amount spent on qualifying fruits and vegetables to a participant’s EBT card under a Biden-era pilot program. New York gives recipients a $2 check for every $2 they spend at farmers markets.
Mitchell, of the Alliance to End Hunger, said those kinds of programs are more realistic than restrictions. He said it can be hard to make healthy purchases on the average SNAP benefits of about $6 per day, only about $1 more than the average cost of a dozen eggs in January. Buying fresh produce is even more challenging in “food desserts,” low-income areas that lack stores selling healthy foods.
“I would just ask readers to think about, what would you be able to purchase with only $6 if you’re trying to figure out how to take care of yourself and your family,” he said. “Wouldn’t you rather have policymakers think of ways to make it more affordable, more accessible for you to be able to have healthier options for yourself and your family, rather than them dictating what you can and cannot buy?”
Tennessee House Speaker Jason Zachary (R) brushed off such critiques during a committee hearing on a bill the House passed last week.
“Of course anyone can do anything with their private dollars,” he said “But when you take government assistance and are part of government programs, we get to set the rules. And we’re going to make the decision in Tennessee that we’re going to align public policy with public health.”